Holiday Shopping Early
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I hope to complete all of our holiday shopping by the end of this weekend.
Why?
Because supply chains all over the world are messed up and we want to ensure loved ones receive the gifts they really want.
Also because then we have one less thing to do and one less concern going into the holidays. We can relax more and simply enjoy it. We can focus on spending time with our loved one and having the laughs.
(grins)
Have you started your holiday shopping?
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Ten Days Until (Another) Doomsday
Chatter on social media is November 13th will be Doomsday.
I have lived long enough to have ‘survived’ many predicted Doomsdays. 2012 was a highly publicized one. As was December 31, 1999.
I kind of like these predictions.
Why?
Because it reminds us that life is short and life is precious and we shouldn’t take it for granted. It is reminder of what is truly important (the people and furbabies and plants and other beings we love).
In the movie, Troy, Achilles says “Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed.” And this is so true. We savor each bite of life when we think it might be our last.
Do that today, my friend. Savor each bite of life – the good, the bad, the silly.
(smiles)
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Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates!
Woot!
This is my favorite celebration of the year. I love feeding people. That is how I show love. And that includes feeding strangers. I love kids. They are such unique little beings, full of wonder and truths. (smiles) I love costumes and magic and the possibility to be whoever or whatever we want to be, if only for one fantastical day of the year. And I love those tiny chocolate bars. I feel like a giant when I eat them.
Have a great Halloween, my friends!
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Candy For Everyone
(This is stock art. We’ll be giving out Nestle chocolate bars which are peanut free here in Canada and are produced locally.)
It has been a challenging year thus far…for everyone.
Tomorrow, kids and teens and maybe some adults will be trick or treating. They will be coming to our door, hoping for candy or stickers, kindness and magic. (smiles)
And we will try to give this to them.
I don’t care if the person is wearing a costume. Or if the person is 3 years old or 53 years old. Or if they say the words or speak at all.
EVERYONE gets chocolate and chips and stickers, a smile and, hopefully, some magic.
And we might get some magic in return.
(smiles)
During a past Halloween, we met two guys who were visiting from Africa who really wanted to experience a North American Halloween, something they had only seen on TV and in movies.
They trick or treated in their business suits and had their entire families on their phones as they did this (the kids were super excited despite the time difference).
Everyone was utterly enchanted by the experience.
And we heard those I suspect otherwise serious businessmen laughing and teasing each other as they walked away with their chocolate and chips and stickers.
It was MAGICAL, my friends. And I want this for you!
EVERYONE gets candy tomorrow!
Woot!
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Yucking Other People’s Yum
I posted a cute story this summer about the Mafia Squirrels stealing the paintbrush I use to hand pollinate the squash and cucumbers.
Someone commented a bit of nonsense about how hand pollination is destroying the world.
(I don’t think he understands what hand pollination is or much of anything about gardening.)
This isn’t the first time he’s left a comment like this.
Any time I post something joyful, he comments, criticizing it.
I’ve reached the conclusion that he is trying to steal my happiness around any task or thing I love.
He is deliberately yucking my yum.
This is an act of hate, not of love or friendship.
And, in this tire fire world, I don’t have the energy for this.
(shakes head)
I blocked him and moved on with my life.
Don’t yuck other people’s yum (if that yum doesn’t directly hurt others).
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Putting Instagram On Pause For Updates
With all the drama surrounding Meta social media properties, I’ve decided to hit pause on any updates on Instagram.
(My Facebook account was deactivated years ago and I was never able to get a new account approved. I guess I wasn’t botlike enough for them. – laughs)
I’m okay. Don’t worry about me if you don’t see any updates there. (smiles) I’m merely waiting to see what happens.
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The Hungry Gap
Gardeners often talk about the ‘hungry gap’, the duration between last harvests and first harvests.
Here in Toronto, Canada, that is often between December 1st and April 1st.
In the our household, the tomatoes picked green in November usually ripen over December.
(We also, of course, always have herbs growing indoors.)
Then we enjoy butternut squash for January, March, and April.
This year, we’ll have enough butternut squash to eat one a week during that time. (grins) One butternut squash lasts the two of us two days. That’s a LOT of butternut squash. And it’s a happy challenge to have.
We also have dried beans, of course. And our frozen tomatoes. And anything we buy or bought at the store.
In the Fall/Autumn, boxes of local produce are sold at grocery stores. The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I chop up (or otherwise process) vegetables and freeze them. We always have enough vegetables stored for the ‘hungry gap.’
In the UK and other places, gardeners can often ‘store’ vegetables like kale and beets outside (i.e. just leave those plants in the ground). We get so much snow it is a lot of work for us to do that. Being lazy, I prefer to have the vegetables in the freezer.
Laziness is also why we freeze stuff and don’t can it. Plus it is merely the two of us.
To shorten the ‘hungry gap’, we ensure we have vegetables (usually perennials or self seeders) ready to go in the garden as soon as possible. Peas, bok choy/pak choi, french sorrel, good king henry and other vegetables love the cooler Spring weather. They often emerge/are planted as soon as the ground thaws.
I grew up hungry, not eating every day. I like to have vegetables in the house or in the backyard garden. That makes me happy.
(smiles)
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Change The World
When we talk about changing the world, we often think of huge actions like arranging a protest rally or figuring out how to decrease all the plastic waste currently in existence.
But it is actually quite easy to change the world.
*
You donate a can of soup to a food bank, for example.
That soup gives someone else a meal, allowing that someone to focus on the exam she’s taking that day.
Doing well on that exam helps land her a scholarship.
She goes to school in a science program.
And eventually cures cancer.
*
Or you smile at a mom struggling with two toddlers in the grocery store.
She feels a bit better, treats her toddlers with more kindness.
The toddlers grow up. And one of them starts a charity, helping young single moms.
Which results in hundreds more kids growing up feeling supported and happy.
And a few of them start charities also.
*
You will likely never know how your kindness has changed the world for the better.
But I assure you
it has.
(smiles)
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An Object In Motion
Part of Newton’s First Law Of Motion states that an object in motion stays in motion.
I find that’s certainly true for me.
(grins)
When I start taking action, I most likely continue to take action.
I have days when I get sh*t done in a big way. I complete task after task.
And when I have one of those days, I usually work with it. I keep going until I’m physically or mentally done.
Because I often find it more stressful on me to stop.
If you’re in motion, consider staying in motion.
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Naps Are Awesome
I’ve always taken naps.
At university, they allowed me to both party all night at the school pubs and attend class clearheaded.
Now, they allow me to do the tasks best completed early in the morning (for example: watering the garden during gardening season) and indulge my natural night owl tendencies. (The Dear Wonderful Hubby is a night owl also. – smiles)
There’s nothing wrong with taking naps.
Take them if they make you happy!
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